Asquith House in Edgbaston, is best known to Birmingham diners as Jessica’s, where Glynn Purnell cut his culinary teeth as head chef in the early to mid Noughties.

Now the grand old house, which was also used as serviced apartments, has been turned into nine stylish flats.

There is an event to celebrate completion of the project in July 2, but most of the apartments have already snapped up by early bird buyers, including four to Deutsche Bank staff. Five of them were sold off plan, then the show apartments were bought.

It was built in 1854 and was originally occupied by the Burt family, who had come from Gibraltar, and their servants. After 1915 it was owned by a James Jolly, who was the director of a coal mine in Smethwick and later an MD of GKN. He only lived there for a few years before he sold it to another director of the mine, Thomas Zacharay Lloyd and his wife, Gertrude.

During the 1980s it was run as a hotel owned by Lady Margaret Young (who wil be attending the launch party)

After that it was used as serviced apartments and Jessica’s restaurant.

When developers Andy and Vickie Mudie and John and Mandy Gannon bought it in 2013, the building was empty and the lead had been stripped from the roof, leaving it in a sorry state and ripe for renovation.